BJP demands NIA probe in Deepak Rao's murder

BJP MP Pralhad Joshi on Thursday demanded a probe into the brutal murder of Hindu activist Deepak Rao by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Lok Sabha.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, he said that a total of 22 members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have so far been murdered in Karnataka during the Siddaramaiah regime.

He demanded the NIA probe into all 22 murders including Deepak Rao.

He accused the Congress government in Karnataka for turning a blind eye on killings as it "wants to adopt the Kerala model" of governance where BJP members "are being targeted."

"I demand an NIA inquiry into all these cases," Joshi said in Lok Sabha.

According to police, Rao was hacked to death in broad daylight on Wednesday when he was returning after collecting some documents from his shop owner Abdul Majid. He was riding a motorbike on his way to work when when four assailants came in a car waylaid him and attacked at him with a sharp-edged weapon.

'The modus operandi is same in the all the 22 cases of murder," Joshi said in the Lok Sabha.

He also read out the names of some of these slain BJP workers, insisting for a NIA probe into all these cases.

Joshi said that the NIA investigation into the murder of Rudresh "has established" that the five persons arrested in connection with the case were the members of the Popular Front of India.

"And it (Popular Front of India) is (an) affiliate of the the political organisation Social Democratic Party of India. In spite of the NIA clearly stating (this) in their chargesheet, the Congress covernment (in the State) have withdrawn a total of 175 cases against the workers of the organisation," he said.

This has bolstered the confidence of those perpetrating the killing of the BJP workers in the state, he charged.